Replication as a Natural Act
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Dr. Ian Malcolm, Spielberg, Steven. Jurassic Park. Universal Pictures, 1993. This famous line from Jurassic Park questions the ethical bounds of scientific experimentation. It should be no surprise that the phrase also applies to technical recommendations. When there are multiple…
Using a Wallet for Identity
I have been working on making blockchain more approachable to consumers and have developed a model using common shopping practices found in bricks-and-mortar stores: I can repeat the process down an entire block of shops. When online, I can use a payment service (or credit card, yikes!) and only have to supply an address for…
Blockchain and Sanity
First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. Nicholas Klein (1914) David Gerard, the author of Attack of the Fifty Foot Blockchain (2017), declares that if “you were silly enough to put personal data into an append-only ledger which is a proof-of-work blockchain — that’d…
Blockchain-as-a-Channel
I chuckle when another “software-as-a-service” is announced because I remember when dashes in the name conveyed mystery. Since I like nostalgia, I thought I would introduce my handle, “Blockchain-as-a-Channel” which represents a new advertising channel for real estate that complements print and web advertising. Economic Service Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing have become accepted in…
Governance Standards are Coming
The IEEE is moving a framework for blockchain governance through the P2145 Blockchain Governance Standards Working Group. The framework provides guidance on structure, roles and responsibilities between blockchain participants. It is good practice to document these as the project begins and a governance document sample outline is included. Defining roles is especially critical to provisioned…
Winter’s End is Near
Cryptocurrency has been depressed for over a year since Bitcoin peaked in November of 2021. The downturn has been called a crypto winter that was partially due to the reduced disposable income of investors due to inflation. While cryptocurrency was depressed, we experienced a collapse of FTX, a major exchange. FTX was an easy-to-use exchange…
Project Planning Notes
I am often asked for tips regarding project planning with blockchains. Translating from my safe zone, relational databases, to blockchain helped me immensely because there are differences in terminology and cost structures. The rest of this post presents some top-of-mind suggestions. Estimating Costs An important element of project planning is estimating the cost to operate…
Vendor of the (blockchain) Future
The National Association of REALTORS® produced a “REALTOR® of the future” video in 1990 and thought it would be an excellent time to discuss the “Vendor of the Future” in the blockchain space. To vendors and service providers, adopting blockchains looks expensive and painful. Customer demand for these changes is not there and margins are…
Usage-based Revenue Model
Smart Contracts that “surround” your data with a controllable privacy layer can also track requests. With tracking, you know what information is requested and who is requesting the information. The Smart Contract that controls this interaction could ask for a modest fee from the user to cover publishing costs. Here is how a fee-required request works.…
Blockchain Economics
There are benefits and challenges associated with blockchain. It is easy to get drawn into a jargon-filled debate that results in both sides talking past each other. I thought it would be good to compare the two on the basis of business economics, a consideration that is important to everyone. Advocates for blockchain tout that…